Re: Time for a Lecture

["WhaleOilBeefHooked" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

tony bailey wrote in message <3792ae8e.0@pink.one.net.au>...
>TIME FOR A LECTURE
>
>1 am somewhat amazed at the attitude of several contributors to this group
>about Countrylinlk North Coast services. So I am attempting to explain here
>a few BASIC facts of life.

As seen by you. The fact that you regard them as facts does not make them
so. I have worked as a reservations consultant for Greyhound, Bus Australia,
McCaffertys and Deluxe (in the coach field) and British Airways and QANTAS
in the airline industry, as well as having worked for the Bus Booking Centre
and Dial-A-Coach as a domestic consultant and with other agencies as an
international consultant. So those are MY credentials - let's see yours.

>I realise that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE on this newsgroup will admit to travelling
>by Countrylink service, so forgive me if some of the things I say are a bit
>basic.

I travel Countrylink - I think they are superb - for DAYLIGHT travel. They
are absolutely APPALLING for overnight travel (Broken Hill service
excepted). The only problem I have with them is with the catering, which
should be improved.

>If a member of the public (not a railfan. or a contributor to this
>newsgroup, for, remember, ANOOOTNWATTBCS ) comes in and asks me what times
>trains operate to Brisbane,

But how many do that? Most people come in and say "I want to go to
Brisbane". VERY few actually specify train. Most people who wish to travel
by train ring Countrylink direct.

>I will firstly check EXACTLY where that person
>is going - Yes it is necessary - some people have no appreciation of
>geography at all - it is not uncommon to be asked if, say, Cairns is north
>of Brisbane!

There were several times (I was actually disciplined for it) when someone
phoned in and asked for the "fare to Queensland" - I quoted them the fare to
Cairns. They said it was a bit expensive compared to <insert opposition
here>. I said we were competitive. They said that <insert competition here>
was $XX. I said "Oh, you mean the fare to BRISBANE. I was quoting you the
fare to CAIRNS!"

>I will explain to  that member of the public that there are TWO services a
>day -
>
>One is an overnight service that arrive sin the morning,-

At a very inconvenient hour, particularly in daylight saving

>Or there is also a morning service that arrives in Murwillumbah at 8.30 pm
>with a bus connection to Brisbane.
>
>You might be surprised at the number of people who opt for the day
train -as
>well as opt for the coach to train connection at Casino from the Gold Coast
>in the morning.

Not at all - pensioners travelling on vouchers paying bugger all cannot
afford to be choosy, can they?

>The point of this is that I generate additional revenue by selling people
on
>the FACT of two possible train connections to Queensland each day.

ROFL!

>Some of you have been getting carried away by the termination of one XPT at
>Murwillumbah - do you think that if the line extended to Southport, that
the
>XPT service would turn around at Murwillumbah?

So what is your point? The daylight services (in BOTH directions) carry far
more local traffic than they do interstate traffic.

>To the members of the travelling public, and to anyone selling tickets,
>there ARE two XPT services a day to Queensland - not one.

Bullsh*t

>All of  the ANOOOTNWATTBCS's reading this know there is only one XPT to
>Queensland a day - but somehow the travelling public think there are two!

There is only one XPT a day to Queensland. Youa re lying to your customers
if you say there are two. The other is a train/BUS connection.

>EXTRA coach services-
>
>(this is getting right off topic - but you should like this story)
>This should also appeal to those people who think that free enterprise road
>services are wonderful and can not do anything wrong, and NEVER EVER put
>public safety after the possibility of making a quid (no sir, not us!)
>
>I had a client who travelled by coach to Coffs Harbour every long weekend -
>he complained about how uncomfortable it was. but continued to travel by
>coach every long weekend until last Easter.
>
>I was surprised when immediately after Easter, he came in and booked by
>train to Coffs Harbour for Anzac Day - I asked him what was wrong with his
>regular coach service
>
>He told me that he was on one of those wonderful extra services on "Black
>Thursday" and the windscreen wipers were not working. If you are a
>Sydneysider, do you remember the Easter weather? If you are not a
>Sydneysider - consider wet, wet, wet.! The coach left on time and headed up
>the highway in the downpour, with absolutely no visibility from the front
>and did not pause except at Bulahdelah Mountain where the relief driver
>actually attempted to clean the windscreen in the downpour.
>
>Would you have even travelled on that coach?

It was obviously a subbie - none of the regular operators would do that
(that is why they have standby coaches). Notexcusing his behaviour, of
course, but you cannot blame the regular coaches for that (I can tell you of
a horror trip to Moree on a Countrylink sub-contracted coach)

DaveP